Miami (March 25, 2026) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) welcomes the decision of Guatemala’s Supreme Court of Justice, which recognized violations of the rights of journalist José Rubén Zamora, granted him definitive constitutional protection (amparo), and confirmed his conditional release, allowing him to face legal proceedings in freedom after more than 1,295 days of arbitrary detention.
The Court overturned three rulings issued in 2025 by the Second Criminal Chamber and the Third Court of Appeals, which had ordered Zamora’s return to prison. The Court determined that his fundamental rights—especially due process—had been violated, citing decisions that lacked legal grounding and were “illegitimate” and “arbitrary,” according to press reports.
Zamora, founder and director of the now-defunct newspaper elPeriódico, was arrested on July 29, 2022, on alleged money laundering charges in a case widely regarded as retaliation for the outlet’s investigations into corruption during the presidency of Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) and its reporting on networks of power and organized crime. He spent more than three years in prison without the accusations against him being proven.
While the Court’s decision represents a relief for Zamora by allowing him to continue his legal process outside prison, it does not constitute the definitive closure of the cases against him, according to media reports.
The IAPA President Pierre Manigault described the ruling as “a significant step toward restoring fundamental guarantees.” Manigault, with the Evening Post Publishing Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina, emphasized that the decision “acknowledges that actions occurred during the process that violated essential rights, within a pattern of persecution that weakened the rule of law.”
For her part, Martha Ramos, chair of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information Committee, said that “the Supreme Court’s decision represents a strong acknowledgment of the irregularities committed in an emblematic case.” Ramos, with Organización Editorial Mexicana, added that “the detention of José Rubén Zamora and the more than three years he was unjustly imprisoned, without the accusations against him being proven, constitute a grave precedent that this ruling begins to correct, reaffirming the need to protect judicial independence and press freedom in the country.”
On February 12, a judicial ruling granted Zamora house arrest, requiring him to report periodically to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and prohibiting him from leaving the country.
During his imprisonment, Zamora was subjected to flagrant violations and psychological and physical abuse, as he himself reported to the SIP. In 2024, an international team of lawyers, representing Zamora’s family, urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to take urgent measures to protect and secure the journalist’s release.
As a result of judicial, political, and economic pressure, elPeriódico was forced to cease operations on May 15, 2023, depriving Guatemalan society of one of its leading investigative journalism outlets.
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.